“He is not!” She could barely contain herself, every statement John made was more ludicrous than the last. “Do you have even the slightest idea of how much work that would take? It couldn’t be done in a month, much less a morning. Much less this morning. Besides, I wouldn’t let him.”

“You wouldn’t let him?” John rubbed his eyebrows and calmed himself, finally taking in a slow steady mouth of air. “What’s going on here?”

“You first, John. What do you think is going on here?”

“We thought the Sheriff captured you, and was forcing you to marry him.”

Marion blinked.

“Is that not true?”

“I am going to marry him.”

“We have to stop that.”

She knew it would break his heart. “No, you don’t.”

There was noise outside from the window, more shouts, but neither of them paid it mind. It was Robin, she knew it, out there somewhere. But her world had grown so very far from his now. The clatter moved from one side of the yard to the other until finally it disappeared again beneath a riot of dogs barking. John’s lips trembled and his face winced. “You care to fill me in on the why?”

If ever there was someone that should have understood, it had to be him. “What have we been doing, John? All this time, what have we been trying to do? The new taxes cut a division in Nottinghamshire that has become worse and worse. Lord Walter tried to take care of the people that were left behind. After him, we tried to find our own way in the woods. But it didn’t work, and ever since it’s been all we can do just to keep the pieces near each other.”

She had genuinely believed they were building something, but the previous weeks had proven that her efforts were more akin to applying bandages.

“What did we think would happen, living in the woods and stealing from nobility?” It was a question as much for him as it was for a younger version of herself. “This wasn’t ever what we wanted. I know some of the boys think they’re accomplishing great things by pissing on the Sheriff’s boots, but we were wrong.”

“Were we?” His face frowned. “Were we wrong to help people?”

“We were doing it the wrong way, John. I wanted a place where people could make decisions for themselves, where they didn’t have to fear the head of a household. And we successfully took away the power and the fear the master had, but we gave every bit of it to the servant. What Will and Elena did, they did it because we convinced them they had a right to do it. We swung too far, don’t you see? There needs to be a balance. And for the balance to work, there need to be rules.”